The larch is getting greener and its flowers are well past their best now, though still in bloom.

I was delighted, after waiting for a little while, to see the two long tailed tits fluttering around, seemingly catching small insects and then popping into the nest. They're very speedy little birds and that, combined with the poor light conditions, made getting a photo of them impossible.

The larch stands very close to the site of the old Bog's Mill, which is currently being made into a wildflower meadow by the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. I was delighted to see cowslips here for the first time today! (Though it will be a while before they're as prolific here as they are in Blackleach Country Park, near where my parents live!).

****

Well, NaPoWriMo has come to an end. I've written a poem almost every day this month, most of them very rough first drafts. My intention in taking part in the project was to try to make sure I capture moments of inspiration and make them into poetry rather than just putting them in a blog post or a Facebook status or a tweet. I think I succeeded in that. Given the number of haiku I wrote during the month, I think in future, I'll take part in NaHaiWriMo instead!

The other thing I did during NaPoWriMo was to produce an updated version of my first poetry chapbook Bougainvillea Dancing, which is now available in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop or you can order it directly from me and pay via Paypal or with a UK cheque. I'm hoping to have the book available on other platforms in the near future. Plus I'm still working on the giveaway I promised before I visited my parents!

There were good numbers of birds on the pond including four great crested grebes. Lots of birds singing in the trees and bushes too.

My mother recently started whistling under her breath, which when I first noticed it, it reminded me of the willow warbler song, which my mother said was accidental as she's not familiar with the willow warbler's song. So when I heard a willow warbler at Blackleach, I suggested to Mum that she should do her willow warbler whistle, which she did, and the two of them enjoyed a short conversation!

Friday, 25 April 2014

Kevin's Supersized Salvage on Channel 4 yesterday was totally inspiring for anyone
interested in making things from 'waste' materials. A whole aeroplane
repurposed into useful products including a garden office, rickshaws,
coat hooks, lampshades. Also lots of interesting stuff about finding
niche markets for these types of products. Fascinating too to see the
evolution of the products from raw concept to final products selling for
high prices in upmarket shops. Would have been nice to see more
'affordable' products but one of the aims of the project was to make
more money than the aeroplane would have made if the metals were
salvaged and the rest sent to landfill so aiming for the high end of the
market was their best (and probably only realistic) option.....

I scheduled this blog post in advance, writing it very quickly after watching the programme, which is why there's no poem for NaPoWriMo with it. I'm currently offline for a few days, will return soon and remember - there'll be a giveaway on this blog soon after I come back.

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Today we walked along the Water of Leith from Roseburn via the Gallery of Modern Art (where we enjoyed some delicious cakes and coffee in the cafe garden) to Dean Village. Lots of birds along just a very short stretch of the river and Crafty Green Boyfriend caught this handsome grey wagtail on camera.

I'm taking a short break from all things online over the next few days and shortly after I return I'll be doing a wee giveaway on this blog. I'll still write a poem a day and will try to share them here when I get back!

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

I got this lovely, but slightly worn piece of macrame work from a friend who was clearing out her Mum's house. I immediately thought of using it as an earring display board so I went searching in second hand shops and eventually found this frame that was going cheap as it had no back and no glass, ideal for my purposes. I soaked the macrame in a warm solution of salt and baking soda to remove the slight yellowness. I then cut a piece of contrasting red cardboard to fit behind the macrame and here you are, an eye-catching earring display board! The earrings themselves are notable too, as they're made from recycled plastic and they look very nice, but are too lightweight to wear on a windy day! The only problem with this type of earring display board is the earrings are liable to get more dusty than if they're kept in a jewellery box, which is where they've been so far. So I'm not sure whether to use this for earrings or find an alternative use for it.... (Suggestions for alternative uses welcome.....).

A season of change

buds bursting into bloom
birds coming out of hiding to sing
and lay eggs that hatch into chicks

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

The garlic mustard is coming into bloom under the larch tree, which I'm studying for Tree Following.

If you look carefully in the photo below you can see the long tailed tits' nest, a lovely hanging basket woven from lichen, spiders webs and other such delicate materials. We didn't see the birds yesterday, hopefully they're hiding in the nest, sitting on eggs.

Further upstream, it was lovely to see several harts-tongue ferns just starting to uncurl.

while some are slightly further out.

and the orange ladybirds (Halyzia 16-guttata) are still hibernating in the iron railings!

Sunday, 20 April 2014

Walking to Edinburgh Airport may not sound like the most appealing of Easter walks, but if you choose the River Almond Walkway to get there, it really is a wonderful walk. Specially at this time of year.

The river is beautiful and surrounded by lots of trees, opening out to fields further upstream.

The spring flowers are blooming everywhere, lots of wood anemone as in the photo below.

The photo below shows bluebells, wild leeks and a celandine.

The birds were singing everywhere too, including blackcaps, chiffchaffs, robins and wrens in the woodland and skylarks above the fields. The sand martins were flying about above the river near their colony of holes in a sandbank and we had a wonderful view of a kingfisher as it flew past us downstream. We were delighted to see two brown hares, distant views of just their ears sticking out above the grass, but still, lovely to see them at Easter! Plus there were a lot of butterflies about. Crafty Green Boyfriend took this photo of two peacocks

and this of a small tortoiseshell

though we didn't manage to get any photos of the orange tip butterflies, which weren't as numerous as they normally are on this walk.

Saturday, 19 April 2014

Ivy has a shadowy side, although birds love it as a place to build their nests in spring and to roost in the winter, it can damage trees, though I recently read that the effect isn't as bad as we had been lead to believe in the past. These cherry blossom trees look slightly uncomfortable though.

Friday, 18 April 2014

I was captivated by this moss which I noticed earlier this week growing on a fallen tree trunk in Colinton Dell by the Water of Leith. Look at the delicate white fruiting bodies. If you know what species it is, please leave a comment!

and I love the contrast betweeh the two species of moss in the photo below.

Moss growing on the trunk of a fallen tree -
it must seem like a forest to this passing bee
or the beetle clambering its way
through the green, entirely unaware of me.

Thursday, 17 April 2014

I taught sciences in Malawi between 1990 - 1992 as a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer. My first poetry pamphlet Bougainvillea Dancing,
published 2002, raised money for charities working in Malawi. The
original pamphlet is sold out now, but I was delighted that Chris
Crittenden reviewed it recently on Owl Who Laughs.

Most of the poems in Bougainvillea Dancing
focussed on Africa, but many of them were unrelated to that continent.
I've just put together an updated version of the pamphlet, removing all
the poems unrelated to Africa and adding in more poems on African
topics, plus a couple of prose pieces and some photos. This is now
available as a pdf to download from the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop.

(If you don't want to shop via Etsy but are happy to use Paypal then let me know.If you don't have a Paypal account then please contact me for alternative payment methods.)

VSO’s programme in Malawi concentrates on HIV and AIDS, health and social
wellbeing, secure livelihoods (food security) and education in seven
rural and remote districts. The districts were chosen due to their
excessive poverty levels, high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, and low
involvement of other international charities.

I'm hoping that editing a poetry pamphlet can count as the equivalent of writing a poem for NaPoWriMo.

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

I was at Gorgie City Farm this afternoon for the last of the current series of Pet Lodge Lectures. Dr Kieren Curran of University of Edinburgh gave a talk "Run, Run Reynard" on the fox and popular song and we listened to some of the songs he spoke about. As the weather was lovely (and the greenhouse too crowded!) we sat outside for the talk. As well as the invited animal guests of guinea pigs and a bearded lizard, we were visited by several of the farm's free-range chickens. The sheep and several species of bird (including a song thrush, great tits and wrens) joined in the singing. I also took the opportunity to catch up with the goat kids that I'd photographed last week when they were only 13 minutes old. This week they're looking more grown up already and have been joined by more kids! They were all very energetic!

***

And not at all related to the rest of the blogpost, today's poem for NaPoWriMoViewI imagine the view from the windows of these cottageswhen they were first built by the side of a then countryside road

fields and more fields over to the mountains and the occasional cyclist or horse drawn cart Now it's a busy road and the traffic roars pastthrough what has become a suburbThe cottages face rows of sheds in a industrial estateand the only field in the neighbourhood is now a 'Prime Site for Development'.

***

In other poetry news, I'm updating my 2002 self published poetry pamphlet 'Bougainvillea Dancing' (adding new poems!)and it will hopefully be available as a pdf to download from the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop in the near future.

Sunday, 13 April 2014

Lots of nesting activity in Inverleith Park yesterday. This coot's nest (above) looks like a piece of modern art, I think the coot used a floating stack of vegetation and added to it. Meanwhile, this mute swan is busy building her nest safely fenced away from the rest of the world.

Over in the Royal Botanic Gardens, it's the season for rhododendrons and azaleas. Here's just a selection:

Crafty Green Poet on Etsy

Crafty Green Magpie on Etsy

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